episode 156 | show notes & advice
episode description
The humble pond is a staggering ecosystem in itself, and supports much of the creatures surrounding it, making any garden pond a wonderful place for wildlife to thrive.
Steve Head returns to the podcast this week with a rousing call to action for us all to create our own ponds, great or small. He shares the value they bring, why one shouldn’t be concerned about a pond’s size, and the gorgeous array of flora and fauna that a pond can introduce
In this episode, discover
- The essential value that ponds bring to both the ecosystem within them, and the wildlife that uses them
- How to design a charming pond that best serves wildlife of all varieties
- Whether your pond drying out is a problem to be prevented, or actually part of a useful cycle
links and references
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Episode 156 advice sheet
How we’ve lost so many of our ponds in recent years (2:30)
In the last 100 years, we’ve lost around one million countryside ponds as they’re filling and silting up into soggy ground. Steve notes how vital it is to reverse this trend and create new ponds, not least for the variety of wildlife that they bring into the garden.
The ideal pond design for biodiversity (6:15)
If you’re looking to create a pond in your garden, then Steve suggests that its design is more helpful to wildlife than its size. There’s an unnecessary stigma around creating ponds at least 1m deep, where in fact varied depth and beachy areas are more generous to creatures both within the pond, and outside of it.
Lining the pond (11:10)
We’re naturally averse to using plastic in the garden in favour of natural alternatives. There are a number of reasons that clay is unfortunately challenging to use as a pond liner, but there’s a budding alternative in the form of Bentomat.
Treating ponds for plant variety and hot weather (15:25)
It’s natural that ponds tend to dry up, and while it might be appealing to try and combat that, it’s reportedly not as crucial as it once might appear. Steve suggests that it might even be a good thing, creating a subclass of pond called ‘temporary ponds’, in which you’re able to cultivate specific flora and fauna.
